West Midlands Police under heavy criticism following latest inspection

Inspectors have found West Midlands Police is not effectively managing the risk to the public of registered sex offenders, or providing satisfactory results for victim

This means the force will be under more scrutiny, but will also get more support from the inspectorate, to help make improvements.

It relates to concerns inspectors raised about how the force manages investigations and makes sure multi-agency risk assessment conferences (MARACs) work effectively to safeguard vulnerable people,

Concerns were also raised about how the force manages sex offenders and offenders accessing indecent images of children.

West Midlands Police said many of the issues identified developed as a result of the previous operating model, and statistical findings are largely drawn from datasets that pre-date the launch of WMP’s new operating model in April 2023.

His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams said: “We move police forces into our enhanced level of monitoring, known as 'engage', when a force is not responding to our concerns, or if it is not managing, mitigating, or eradicating these concerns.

“West Midlands Police has been asked to urgently produce an improvement plan and will meet regularly with our inspectors. We will work closely with the force to monitor its progress against these important and necessary changes.”

Chief Constable Craig Guildford from the force said: “Although I remain respectful of HMICFRS, I completely disagree with their decision-making to move West Midlands Police into ‘engage’ now despite providing them with recent evidence that should inform a much more comprehensive and fair assessment of the force.

“Our job now is to ensure the plans we have already implemented expeditiously address HMICFRS’ concerns.

“When I joined WMP in December 2022 I set some clear priorities as I recognised there needed to be a significant improvement in the force’s performance, the number of offenders brought to justice, and the service we provide to local communities.

“It was for this reason that I implemented a rapid overhaul of the operating model and in April 2023 we created seven new Local Policing Areas, each of which has local responsibility for responding to calls for service and investigating offences. Since implementing this new model, changing Force Contact and opening two more custody suites, our arrest rate has increased by a third as has the number of offenders brought to justice. This continues to improve each month.

Mr Guildford continued: “As a result of these rapid changes we are now the best-performing force of our most similar forces group when it comes to solving burglary, robbery, and homicide. The number of rapes we solve has increased dramatically, such that we have now surpassed the national average. We have gone from being one of the worst call-handling forces to one of the best in 11 months. We answer 70,000 999 calls each month in an average of five seconds and have improved the proportion of emergency incidents attended within our specified targets by 25%.

“Our data is showing some significant reductions in crime. If the current trends continue, we expect to be one of the best-performing forces nationally for crime reductions.

“Accepting that you cannot turn a force the size of West Midlands Police around overnight, and notwithstanding all of the progress, we accept that investigations need to improve further. Indeed, we had already identified the concerns relating to investigations before HMICFRS inspected us; and we now have a detailed plan which is already delivering improvement. This will continue to be shared with HMICFRS.”

Issues have also been raised by HMICFRS about WMP’s management of the risk posed by registered sex offenders and online child abuse offenders.

Chief Constable Guildford said: “I want to reassure people that we had already identified these issues and put robust plans in place to rectify them. Whilst I accept the broad findings in relation to the frequency of some visits and supervisory oversight, this was a legacy of the previous force operating model which I have changed.

“We have merged Sex Offender Manager units into our specialist Public Protection Unit so that the issues identified are being better managed by the specialist leadership. We are already seeing significant improvements including a reduction in outstanding risk assessments by 58%, and the introduction of a new staff welfare programme and performance dashboards that allow for enhanced scrutiny and oversight by managers.

“Our online investigative capability has been increased since the inspection, and as we shared with HMICFRS, we quickly eliminated a backlog in enforcement, and have sustained that improvement ever since. At the same time, we have implemented a new safeguarding referral process ahead of the national deadline set by the HMICFRS.”

The focus of the HMICFRS engage phase is to assist the force in finding ways to improve and resolve identified causes of concern, where they have not been successful in doing so independently. At this stage, forces are asked to carry out a comprehensive analysis and develop an improvement plan to set out how causes of concern will be addressed.

Chief Constable Guildford added: “We already have plans in place to address the concerns highlighted by HMICFRS which are working to deliver sustained and verifiable results. My officers and staff, who I hugely respect, continue to work very hard on behalf of the public.

“We remain focused on doing our very best to keep the public safe and bring offenders to justice. I have every confidence that we will continue to deliver sustained improvements for local communities and I look forward to evidencing this over the coming weeks and months to HMICFRS.”

Reaction from the West Midlands' Mayor

Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, said:

“Today’s news regarding West Midlands Police makes for very uncomfortable reading. I feel for those officers who are working tirelessly to keep us all safe, but most importantly I’m concerned for the victims of crime who must be our priority.

“Confidence in policing is absolutely mission critical, and I can understand why today’s announcement may have rocked that. That’s why I stand ready to work with the Chief Constable, the current PCC, and of course Government to help West Midlands Police get out of special measures and restore public confidence.

“However we cannot ignore the fact that today’s news highlights serious concerns about the effectiveness of the Police & Crime Commissioner model to hold the force to account and drive out the necessary improvements. That’s why earlier this month I requested the transfer of PCC powers to the Mayor after May, and I believe that move to a single point of accountability has become even more important after today.”

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